The ACC gets its postseason underway today with the first three of its nine bowl teams in action. Two of them — Duke in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium and Miami in the Sun — are slight underdogs while Virginia Tech is favored to beat Tulsa in the Independence.

More often than not, though, motivation has more of an impact on the outcome of bowls than talent or individual matchups. So there’s no telling how the Blue Devils, Hokies and Hurricanes or their opponents will react until the games actually begin.

As we wait to see who’s ready to play and who’s not, here are five questions to think about and consider:

1, How much will Duke miss Jeremy Cash?

Duke’s Corbin McCarthy intercepts a pass at Army earlier this season

Cash, who is sidelined by wrist surgery performed earlier this month, isn’t just a unanimous All-America who made 101 tackles from his safety position. He was also the heart and soul of a Duke defense that can use all the help it can get against an Indiana attack that led the Big Ten passing. Although there’s still plenty of talent in the Blue Devils secondary in the person of DeVon Edwards, Deondre Singleton and Breon Borders, there’s a major dropoff between Cash and his replacement Corbin McCarthy. McCarthy will undoubtedly become a target that will be tested early and often by Hoosiers’ quarterback Nate Sudfeld, who threw for 3,184 yards and 24 touchdowns during the regular season. If there’s one thing Duke can do to help soften the blow from Cash’s loss it’s by having Thomas Sirk and its own offense take some of the pressure off by putting up a big number against an Indiana defense that allows an average of 31.7 points and 507.3 yards per game.

2, Whose bowl drought will end today, the Blue Devils’ or the Hoosiers’?

Duke celebrates its victory against Arkansas in the 1961 Cotton Bowl

Duke hasn’t won a bowl game since beating Arkansas 7-6 in the 1961 Cotton Bowl. But it’s another, though shorter drought that will likely be weighing heavily on the minds of coach David Cutcliffe’s team when it lines up in a baseball stadium against another basketball school this afternoon. The Blue Devils have led their bowl game in the fourth quarter in each of the last three years, only to have victory snatched away in the most excruciatingly painful way This will be the last chance to end both of those streaks for a senior class that can become the winningest in school history with a victory. Indiana, on the other hand, is playing in only its second postseason game since 1993 and is looking for its first bowl win since a 24-0 shutout of Baylor in the 1991 Copper Bowl. So something has to give for one of these teams.

3, How will Virginia Tech react to playing its final game under retiring coach Frank Beamer?

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer will be riding off the field for the final time today

When it comes to motivation, no one outside of the four teams playing in college football’s national championship playoff has more than the Hokies, who are determined to send retiring coach Frank Beamer out a winner. The danger for Tech is that Beamer’s players get too caught up in the emotion of the day and lose their focus against what would figure to be an overmatched Tulsa team. To their credit, the Hokies took care of business under similar circumstances in their regular season finale at Virginia — a game they needed to win to extend Beamer’s career and become bowl eligible and extend their bowl streak to 23 straight years. This game is likely to come down to the matchup between Tech’s defense, which ranked second in the ACC against the pass at 174 yards allowed per game against a Tulsa offense that ranked second in the American Athletic Conference and 11th nationally with an average of 329 yards per game through the air.

4, How will Miami react to playing its final game under lame duck interim coach Larry Scott?

Miami won four of its final five regular season games under interim coach Larry Scott

The Hurricanes will be dealing with a similar scenario to that of the Hokies, only with different circumstances. Instead of looking to add to the legacy of a beloved coach riding off into the sunset after a legendary career, Miami will be playing its final game for an interim leader who took over in turmoil at midseason following Al Golden’s dismissal. The Hurricanes seem to have rallied around Scott, who led them to four wins in their final five games, But things don’t always turn out well for teams playing bowl games for a lame duck staff. Just ask North Carolina in 2011 and N.C. State in 2012. The best thing that can happen for Miami against Washington State today is to get off to a strong start. Because if things don’t go well early and the Hurricanes fall behind, there’s a good chance the players will lose interest and look get things over with so they can move on to the Mark Richt era as quickly as possible.

5, How important are today’s games to the ACC’s overall bowl success?

Bowl results aren’t necessarily an accurate indication of a conference’s strength. But when you’re the ACC and your national perception always seems to be a subject for discussion, a winning postseason record is a good way to quiet the doubters. While that hasn’t happened since 2012, the league can take a major step toward reversing that trend today with three games that are eminently winnable — regardless of what the folks in Vegas think. Starting 3-0 would put the ACC more than half way toward the five victories it needs to come out on the right side of the ledger. Even two would go a long way toward building momentum, especially with the toughest games still to come.